If you read domain blogs, you most likely know the name Shane Cultra. But before he was known to us as Domain Shane trading names, he was a self-starter trading notes and bonds for a living. Shane also has grounded experience with how brick and mortar businesses operate from running a large landscaping/nursery that’s been in his family for five generations. He’s expressed to me that of all the businesses he’s had a hand in, this one was his most rewarding. If you know how to grow both plants and your business during the dead of winter in Illinois, your green thumb is bound to translate elsewhere.
It’s undeniable that this knowledge carried over into his entrepreneurial career in tech as his current blog and actions parallel adages spoken by Warren Buffet or Dennis Gartman regarding passive income and niche markets. However, like many entrepreneurs in the tech world, Shane’s story began with haphazardly hand-registering truck loads of domains and blogging.
After years of trial and tribulation, we fast forward to 2015 and Shane is living the American Dream. Shane grew his last blog, WallstreetFighter.com, practically overnight (but don’t doubt that it involved blood, sweat, and tears) and sold it to a Lions Gate subsidiary for an undisclosed $XX,XXX figure. They later pivoted into what’s now known as MadeMan.com.
Shane has expressed that his secret to rapidly growing a blog is to post ritually and befriend the social media elite who have sizable followings on major social networks and news aggregating platforms. I personally believe that the third factor to the success of WallstreetFighter.com was Shane’s personality, which still shows in his writing today. FakeGrimLock via AVC.com has described this as Minimum Viable Personality or the necessary component to make something interesting and differentiate it from its less fascinating counterparts.
All of these tactics and more lead to his blog’s success and acquisition, but the sale of it provided him the opportunity to further diversify his standing by:
It’s undeniable that this knowledge carried over into his entrepreneurial career in tech as his current blog and actions parallel adages spoken by Warren Buffet or Dennis Gartman regarding passive income and niche markets. However, like many entrepreneurs in the tech world, Shane’s story began with haphazardly hand-registering truck loads of domains and blogging.
After years of trial and tribulation, we fast forward to 2015 and Shane is living the American Dream. Shane grew his last blog, WallstreetFighter.com, practically overnight (but don’t doubt that it involved blood, sweat, and tears) and sold it to a Lions Gate subsidiary for an undisclosed $XX,XXX figure. They later pivoted into what’s now known as MadeMan.com.
Shane has expressed that his secret to rapidly growing a blog is to post ritually and befriend the social media elite who have sizable followings on major social networks and news aggregating platforms. I personally believe that the third factor to the success of WallstreetFighter.com was Shane’s personality, which still shows in his writing today. FakeGrimLock via AVC.com has described this as Minimum Viable Personality or the necessary component to make something interesting and differentiate it from its less fascinating counterparts.
All of these tactics and more lead to his blog’s success and acquisition, but the sale of it provided him the opportunity to further diversify his standing by:
- Investing in Premium Domain Names- Purchasing his niche domains that include plant names, numeric domains, CVCV.com’s, and the highest quality 5L .com’s.
- Trade Stock Options- Shane actually managed to turn $2,000 into $250,000 in a single year of trading, but cut his losses after a riskier trade and ended up banking $120,000.
- Go in on a Startup- Parlaying his windfall into owning part of a startup, namely Wallstrip.com, proved to be profitable to him beyond monetary value (although Wallstrip’s acquisition by CBS was $5MM) as he made connections with prominent VC’s like Fred Wilson, Mark Pincus, and Howard Lindzon, essentially putting him on the map with the who’s-who of funding. Shane has expressed the deepest gratitude towards Howard Lindzon specifically for letting him buy into Wallstrip.com and encourage him to “keep going and writing.”
